Microsoft Collaborates with Mistral, OpenAI’s French Rival, to Offer AI Models on Azure Platform

In a significant move poised to reshape the landscape of artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, Microsoft has forged a new partnership with French startup Mistral AI, announcing plans to integrate Mistral’s AI models into its Azure cloud computing platform.

This landmark agreement underscores Microsoft’s strategic ambition to diversify its AI portfolio beyond its existing collaboration with OpenAI, positioning the tech giant to cater to a broader spectrum of customer needs in the burgeoning AI market. By leveraging Mistral’s innovative AI solutions, Microsoft aims to bolster the appeal of its Azure cloud services, enticing enterprises and developers with a rich array of cutting-edge AI capabilities tailored to meet diverse business requirements.

The multi-year partnership between Microsoft and Mistral marks a significant milestone in the evolution of AI technology, signaling a departure from traditional paradigms and embracing a more collaborative and inclusive approach to innovation.

As Microsoft expands its AI offerings through partnerships with emerging startups like Mistral, it underscores the company’s commitment to fostering a vibrant ecosystem of AI-driven solutions that empower organizations to unlock new levels of productivity, efficiency, and creativity. Moreover, by taking a minority stake in Mistral as part of the deal, Microsoft underscores its confidence in the startup’s vision and capabilities, further cementing the foundations for a fruitful and mutually beneficial collaboration.

With the details of the partnership still unfolding, industry observers eagerly await further insights into the strategic implications and potential ramifications of Microsoft’s collaboration with Mistral. As the tech giant continues to harness the power of AI to drive innovation across its cloud services portfolio, the partnership with Mistral represents a bold step forward in Microsoft’s quest to redefine the future of computing and cement its position as a leader in the AI-driven digital transformation era.

Microsoft confirmed its investment in Mistral, but said it holds no equity in the company. The tech giant is under regulatory scrutiny in Europe and the US for its outsized funding in OpenAI.The Paris-based startup works on open source and proprietary large language models (LLM), similar to the one OpenAI pioneered with ChatGPT, that understands and generates text in a human-like fashion.Its latest proprietary model, Mistral Large, will be first available to Azure customers under the partnership. Mistral’s technology will be hosted on Microsoft’s cloud computing platform.

Mistral has also been working with Amazon and Google to distribute its models. It plans to make Mistral Large available on other cloud platforms in the next few months, a spokesperson said.Mistral was founded by Timothée Lacroix and Guillaume Lample, who previously worked on Meta’s artificial intelligence teams; and Arthur Mensch, a former researcher at Google’s DeepMind.